Container shipping rates have weakened over the past month, with the benchmark North Asia to West Coast North America rate falling to $1,350 / FEU from $1,500 / FEU between Jan. 24 and Feb. 24 according to S&P Global Platts data. Perhaps unsurprisingly market participants are blaming volume shortages due to the outbreak of COVID-19, with one freight forwarder commenting “there isn’t any cargo around – nobody has come back to work”. It’s worth bearing in mind that though that the Shanghai Shipping Exchange index has only so far performed inline with t...